Europe’s AI Debate Has a Blind Spot

Why circular IT is essential for a green, sovereign digital future

Europe’s conversation about artificial intelligence is becoming increasingly mature. We debate regulation, ethics, sovereignty and competitiveness. We compare ecosystems, discuss talent shortages and measure ourselves against the United States and China.

Yet beneath this increasingly sophisticated debate lies a structural blind spot: the physical reality of digital technology itself.

AI does not exist in abstraction. It runs on servers, laptops, chips and data centres. These depend on energy, water, raw materials and global supply chains that are under growing pressure. If Europe wants a digital future that is both green and resilient, it cannot focus on algorithms alone. It must also take responsibility for the hardware that makes digital intelligence possible.

The environmental cost of digital intelligence

The environmental footprint of digitalisation is no longer marginal. Producing a single laptop requires enormous quantities of raw materials and water, while data centres are rapidly becoming one of the fastest-growing sources of energy consumption. At the same time, electronic waste continues to grow at a pace that far exceeds current recycling capacity.

In this context, Europe’s ambition to lead on sustainable and ethical AI risks becoming inconsistent if the material foundations of technology remain largely unaddressed. Talking about responsible AI while ignoring its physical footprint creates a growing credibility gap.

Circular IT as a structural alternative

This is where circular IT enters the picture.

Companies such as Circular IT Group, often operating under the name IT Circulair, approach digital infrastructure from a fundamentally different angle. Their focus is not on replacing hardware faster, but on extending its useful life in a secure and economically viable way. Devices are refurbished, redeployed and only recycled when they truly reach the end of their lifecycle. Sensitive data is securely erased and value is recovered rather than discarded.

Circular IT reframes hardware not as disposable input, but as long-term infrastructure.

From sustainability narrative to business logic

For Erwin van der Valk, Marketing Manager at Circular IT Group, this is not a niche sustainability initiative but a structural shift in how organisations should think about technology. His mission, as he has stated publicly, is to make IT circular not just for a small group of frontrunners, but for the thousands of organisations that rely on digital infrastructure every day.

That distinction matters. Circular IT is not about symbolism; it is about scale.

Too often, sustainability in technology is framed as a moral obligation or a regulatory burden. Van der Valk consistently challenges that framing. In his view, circularity is also a business opportunity. Extending hardware lifecycles reduces costs, lowers dependency on volatile global supply chains and helps organisations achieve measurable ESG outcomes — without slowing down innovation.

Responsibility and competitiveness, in this view, are not opposites.

A natural fit with Europe’s digital identity

This perspective aligns closely with Europe’s broader digital identity. Europe may not always dominate in sheer scale or speed, but it has a long tradition of embedding societal values into systems and institutions.

Circular IT reflects that tradition. It aligns with European regulation, supports technological sovereignty and reduces strategic dependencies on external suppliers of raw materials and hardware. In doing so, it quietly strengthens Europe’s strategic autonomy — not through grand announcements, but through operational choices.

Connecting strategy to practice

At Altair Media, we often analyse AI through a macro, meso and micro lens: geopolitics, organisational ecosystems and real-world implementation. Circular IT operates precisely at the intersection of these layers.

It translates long-term climate goals and sovereignty ambitions into concrete decisions about procurement, lifecycle management and digital responsibility. Without this translation layer, discussions about ethical AI risk remaining abstract and disconnected from daily practice.

Beyond software narratives

Much of today’s AI discourse is dominated by software narratives: models, benchmarks and platforms. These discussions are necessary, but incomplete.

The next phase of Europe’s digital debate will require more uncomfortable questions. How long do we actually use our hardware? Where do the materials come from and where do they end up? Who controls the physical backbone of our digital society?

As Van der Valk has observed elsewhere, real change does not happen through technology alone, but through changes in behaviour. That insight may be one of the most underestimated contributions to the current AI debate.

The invisible backbone of a green digital future

Circular IT will never attract the same attention as a breakthrough AI model or a high-profile startup. But without it, Europe’s vision of a green, resilient and sovereign digital future remains fragile.

If AI is the brain of the digital economy, circular IT is its skeleton: rarely visible, often overlooked, but absolutely essential.

Europe does not have to choose between innovation and responsibility. The real challenge is to design systems in which the two reinforce each other. Circular IT shows that this is not only possible, but already happening — quietly, structurally and at scale.